


Keeping Time

by Atticus



Category: Terminator (Movies), Terminator - All Media Types, Terminator: Dark Fate
Genre: F/F, Grinding, One Shot, Rimming, Smut, vaguely domestic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:07:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22225372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atticus/pseuds/Atticus
Summary: “I liked that.” Dani whispers, conspiratorial and coy, and Grace laughs, stretches out long and languid like a panther. She is still shirtless, and her jeans are open and hanging low enough that Dani can see sharp hip bones and the pale suggestion of pubic hair.“You like a lot of things.” Grace smiles, and arches until something pops.“Well I can’t wait to hear about them.” Dani replies, and bites the inside of her cheek to soften her grin.
Relationships: Grace Harper/Dani Ramos
Comments: 35
Kudos: 213





	Keeping Time

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking about this god damn augment for three months, so here's a dirty one-shot about it all.

It turns out it isn’t just the syringes for her crashes that Grace needs – it takes a lot to keep an augment.

When Grace had first arrived here (now) there hadn’t been opportunities or time, but now that the Rev-9 is gone, now that she is staying, there are routines and rituals and clusters of little white pills every day.

The pills keep her even, settle her nerves and keep her muscles from twitching with the thrum of the wires buried in her.

Without them her teeth ache. Her bones feel like they grind and her skin grows cold like metal. Without them she sweats and shivers, scratches at her skin and grows impatient and pained.

Grace is intensely private with her augments, but they are close enough now for honesty about this, and Dani has seen it - the way she will tremble and sweat too long between doses. When they finally run out, Grace shivers and cries for a day, begs Dani from behind the locked bathroom door until she brings her more. It scares Dani, shrinks her into corners and keeps her from their bedroom – but she understands it isn’t Grace’s fault, just the cost of what has been done to her.

And more than just the meds there is food, endless food throughout the day. Dani had tried to keep up at first, cooking and frying and sweating in the kitchen all the time. It hadn’t taken long to become clear that it was impossible, and now there are pizzas on speed dial and rotisserie chickens in bulk. It hurts Dani in a small, private way – food is part of how she loves, and she stings to outsource it like this. But Grace braces over the food just the same, still looks across at her fondly, hopefully, from under her mop of hair.

The new lithium battery stitched crudely into her chest makes it all twice as important, strings her out and wears her down some days in ways the original power source hadn’t. She needs all the energy she can get.

And there are other things that Grace needs, too.

The sex is wonderful, but for all her power, or maybe because of it, Grace is careful and gentle – almost hesitant when she touches Dani. At first, Dani had wondered if it would be rough and groaning and quick – the way she fights. Instead, in the blue-dark of their bed at night, Grace’s breath will come in deep, peaceful wheels while her hands trace over Dani’s shiver-prickled skin.

“Is that okay?” Grace will ask softly, like she might break her, and the answer is always ‘yes’, the answer is always ‘ _more_ ’.

Mostly it is Dani who moves them, urges Grace the way she wants her or presses herself up hard and needy against the incredible firmness of thighs, abs, tongue. Grace is always exhilarated and obliging –rolling Dani beneath her to press right back, or burying inside her just right.

For her part, Grace is shy about wanting. Dani will coax her into opening up, kisses, whispers and little gentle movements until she forgets how to hide how much she needs to be touched and she lets Dani hear the hitching in her sighs, lets her trace the silver-white of her scars all over. When Grace gets like that she is almost insatiable and they play late, doze together well past the mornings.

Early, Dani realises that Grace already knows what she likes from when they have done this before – when they will do this again- and it makes Dani smile sometimes to know that there is never a time when she doesn’t have this.

Now, Grace is balanced on the chair in the corner of the bedroom. She sits the way the boys in the assembly plant used to, legs spread wide and loose kneed but at least a head taller than any of them. It sends a shiver through Dani, makes her want to perch on one hard, thick thigh and press against the flatness of the abs above it, but she flushes to think like that. Watching from the doorway, she feels rude and hungry.

Grace is pulling off her shoes, one heavy black boot after the other. She has been outside with the cars, fixing an old Toyota that was on the property when they got here. Her neck is gritty with sweat and dust, and on one cheek there is grease.

When she is done with the boots Grace stands, effortlessly pulls her smudged white tank over the back of her head with one arm and makes her way bare-breasted to the bathroom. In some ways, she is shameless about her nudity – seems unconcerned about her naked chest the way that Dani has only known men to be. She wonders if it is a military thing – maybe it is a future thing. Probably, it is a Grace thing. There are a lot of those, Dani is learning.

In the bathroom, Grace fills the sink with water and wipes at herself with the cloth there. Dani drifts along after her like a ghost, can’t help herself but to press up against the wide, muscled expanse of Grace’s back. She peers from the side to meet ice-blue eyes through the mirror, still foggy from Dani’s shower minutes earlier.

Graces eyes drop awkwardly, avoiding Dani’s gaze. She is like this, Dani knows, not because of her exposed skin – it is because of the scars. In the fluorescent lights, they trace her limbs like silver wire. She raises the cloth in a short aborted movement, as though to cover the round white studs at her sternum. Seems to change her mind before her hand is halfway there.

“I can get a shirt.” Grace starts, but Dani just pulls softly at a belt loop where Grace’s jeans are slung low on her hips. When Grace turns into the movement, Dani turns her face upward for a kiss, sighs when Grace dips to meet her. She strains upward to lick hotly into Grace’s open mouth. With a groan, Grace deepens the kiss, pulls one hand up to cup the back of Dani’s head. There is a soft breathless noise, and Dani isn’t sure which of them it might have been.

Dani presses in closer and Grace bends briefly, hoists the smaller girl up against her with her long fingers curled where Dani’s thigh meets the curve of her ass. Pressed against her bare chest, Dani can feel the hardness of Grace’s nipples – runs a hand over one lightly and is rewarded with a groan.

Dani wraps her legs loosely around Grace’s waist, expects to be placed on the bathroom counter but finds herself carried back to the bedroom instead, set down and bracketed between velvet soft skin and the wall beside the bed.

Grace turns Dani then, presses her front into the wall in that way of hers that is soft and firm and reverent all at once. With her forearm braced on the wall, Grace pushes her hips hard against Dani’s ass and grinds there. It starts out quick and spontaneous, an unchecked impulse on the way to something else, but Dani can feel the moment Grace catches herself just right against the seam of her own jeans, the way her movements stutter slightly. She can feel the hot breath of a whimper against her neck, and Grace’s hand reaching blindly for her hips to press in again.

Dani tries to turn then – tries to spin in place to wrap her arms up and around the endless long lines of Grace’s arms, neck, ribs. But a firm hand stills her, steadies her in place.

“Dani-” Grace rasps, tightens her grip.

“Stay still for me.” She asks, and it is soft, the hopeful wanting of it bared open.

Dani nods and arches, pushes her hips out and back against the clothed heat of Grace for her to push against again.

“Oh-” Grace groans, sounds almost surprised by how good it is when she grinds her hips forward again.

One long, broad hand comes down to slip against Dani’s collarbones – presses firmly before sliding down under the v of her shirt, slipping down to cup at her breast while Grace continues to drive against her from behind. The fingers resting against her hip curl, pulling her back harder. 

Dani presses her face against the cool, white expanse of the wall and listens to the way Grace’s noise settles into a rasping rhythm forcing it’s way out of her throat in pulses. Dani can feel the heavy weight against her, heavier than expected – heavier than it should be, weighed down with metal and muscle and wire. Where her shirt has ridden up, Grace’s skin is soft and slick with sweat. She ducks her head now to bury her nose and lips and cheeks in the dark tangle of Dani’s hair, breathes the scent of her in deeply. Air shivers up Dani’s neck in the wake of the exhale, and goose bumps prickle and pull at her skin deliciously.

Grace is pushing against her unchecked now, chasing down her own pleasure intently, and Dani knows there will be bruises on the crescents of her hips from where they are pressed into the wall. Later, she knows, Grace will kiss them until they ache. For now, there is a thin reedy groan rising from behind her, hot and shivering against her ear. It is broken only by the soft _huff huff_ of panting.

Dragging herself across the rough fabric of her own jeans, pressed almost painfully hard against the curve of Dani’s ass, Grace is starting to falter and buckle. One messy thrust pushes harder and further against Dani, chasing some bright flicker of feeling. The abrupt pressure pushes a needy staccato gasp out of Dani, and she feels the vibrations of an answering groan vibrate from behind her, through her spine.

The hand curling at her breast pulls away as Grace moves to rest her forearm flat against the wall above Dani, brackets her inside a cage of long limbs and hardness. The movement gives Grace the last bit of leverage the she needs, and she comes with a sudden, bitten back cry followed by a longer, sweeter whine. She keens out her pleasure against her own wrist pressed against the wall. Her hips slow but don’t stop, settling from tight, hard thrusts to longer, slower, dragging movements. At the peak of each roll of her hips, Dani can hear an almost pained hiccupping sound of pleasure.

Dani wants to turn, press her mouth to Grace and swallow the small, hurt sounds, but Grace is already moving again, keeping her in place with gentle hands and grateful kisses against her neck.

Grace kneels to kiss her way down tanned shoulders, back, hips - pulls Dani’s shorts and underwear off gently as she goes. Even on her knees like this she is still tall - impossibly tall. When she reaches the cheeks of Dani’s ass she presses kisses there too, groans into the skin softly. She reaches one arm around to circle her fingers where Dani is already wet and swollen, slides them up to drag the knuckle of her thumb against her clit. It pulls a soft little noise of pleasure out of Dani, and she can feel where Grace’s lips are pressed against her as they lift briefly into a knowing smile.

“There – “ Dani pants out against the wall, and the mouth pressed into her skin huffs out a pleased sound before the fingers drag against her just right again and again.

“I know.” Grace says, reassuring and satisfied.

There is a moment of stillness before she uses her free hand to lean Dani further into the wall, drags it back down to pull at her, nips at the soft cheek of her ass before spreading her open to run her tongue hotly over the hidden, sensitive ring of muscle there.

_Oh._

The unfamiliar feeling runs through Dani in a thrill of unexpected pleasure. Paired with the hand still circling softly at her clit, it brings a sharp gasp from her unbidden. She doesn’t quite pull away, but twists at the waist, stares down with wide eyes.

“Ah. Grace – I - ”

“Shh” Grace rasps – raises one endless arm and presses her right hand up and over Dani’s ribs. She strokes there softly for a moment.

“You’re okay.” She whispers, and then with a small smile “You like this.”

And it isn’t until Dani nods haltingly at her that she lowers her mouth, touches her tongue against her again. And Dani is surprised to find that she is right. It makes it less embarrassing somehow, knowing that her enjoyment is something Grace is already expecting, and she sinks back more easily against her. When the tongue flicks against her again it sends another flicker of hot pleasure running through her, and she buries her face into the wall again to hide the scarlet blush spreading high on her cheeks.

“Okay?” husks Grace, and it turns up gently at the end in a way that tells Dani that she really is asking, really wants to know. Dani nods fervently, presses her forehead hard against the wall, but the sensation doesn’t continue – just the maddening sweep of a thumb against her ribs, right in the sensitive well where back becomes waist. With an impatient groan of frustration, she pushes out and back to reach more of Grace, more of everything.

_“Please_.” She keens, and Grace groans out loudly before her hand drops down, her tongue returns to trace light and dexterous against her, breath coming in hot pants.

Dani doesn’t know where to look. It feels obscene to look back at Grace like this, to watch her in this moment that is so taboo and so unfamiliar. But when she does turn to glance over her shoulder, the taller woman seems not to share Dani’s concern. She is leaned into her completely, relaxing into the movement with her whole body. Between her long, pale thighs one of her own hands is disappearing into the front of her unzipped jeans. It is moving fast, three fingers pressing up against herself.

Knowing that Grace is enjoying this - wants this as much as she does - makes it easier again, and Dani can feel pleasure spread readily in tendrils across her skin.

With one hand running quick and perfect over Dani’s clit and the other buried between her legs, Grace has no leverage to hold Dani open. Dani can feel the way Grace has to crane her neck and use the hand pressed against Dani’s clit to pull her back against her mouth. The change makes it all less delicate, less finessed, and Grace’s tongue laves over her in wide, flat strokes now.

If Grace were to move just slightly forward, slightly down, she could run her tongue over her own fingers where they are sliding across wet heat, _almost-but-not-quite_ dipping inside at the bottom of each slow sweep.

The tongue against her is messy and halting now, pulses against her in broader strokes that tell Dani how close Grace is. It all feels like too much and not enough all at once, and so Dani reaches back, coils her fingers in short blonde hair and _pulls_.

The noise the Grace makes as she comes is pained and animal, muffled by skin and heat in a way that brings a renewed flush of pleasure and embarrassment to Dani’s face.

Everything in Grace crumbles and falters with pleasure except for the fingers playing across Dani’s clit, and Dani tries to not to wonder whether this is automated, outsourced, wires and processing sparking without any effort from Grace.

The thought flickers through her for only a moment before Grace groans again, chasing the mellow aftershocks of her orgasm. The fingers still playing against Dani stumble then and when Grace fumbles to pull her fingers back into place, it is the sudden renewed pressure that throws Dani into the start of her own orgasm, too. It feels as though the build up has been endless, and everything crashes over her in bright, sharp crests of pleasure. She gasps out her pleasure against the wall, and Grace continues to run her fingers gently against her, shivers again at the sounds she pulls out of the girl above her. 

It doesn’t take long before Dani pulls one of her own hands down to swat at Grace’s, pushing her away when the sensation becomes to sharp and too much. Grace has pulled back from her, and huffs out a pleased breathless laugh against her hip.

When she finally catches her breath, Dani leans back until Grace reaches out her arms for her, gathers her up and pulls her down until they are both coiled on the carpet. Laying down, Dani is it head- height with Grace, close enough to see the pleasure and contentment on her features. She leans in, brushes her lips along the shell of Grace’s ear until she feels a shiver.

“I liked that.” She whispers, conspiratorial and coy, and Grace laughs, stretches out long and languid like a panther. She is still shirtless, and her jeans are open and hanging low enough that Dani can see hip bones and below the zipper, the pale suggestion of pubic hair.

“You like a lot of things.” Grace smiles, and arches until something pops.

“Well I can’t wait to hear about them.” Dani replies, bites the inside of her cheek to soften her grin.

In the soft golden light of the window, Grace is breath-takingly beautiful when she leans back up on her elbows, her hair falling in a messy mop over her forehead. She is leaning in closer, and already Dani can see the rising flush of arousal spreading again across her cheeks and neck and chest.

“I think I can show you a couple.” Grace husks, long blunt fingers already reaching out to brush along the sensitive skin of Dani’s neck. Faintly, Dani can smell the toasted warmth of the morning’s coffee waiting in the next room and the bright tang of grease from Grace’s projects.

And Dani thinks that sometimes the future isn’t something she’s worried about at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are the light of my life. Just saying.


End file.
